Missouri Innovation Park plans continue

COLUMBIA — MU has leased space in the Heartland Building in Blue Springs to secure an early location to help recruit firms for the Missouri Innovation Park.

The Blue Springs Economic Development Corporation is developing the Missouri Innovation Park, a place for research firm tenants, the corporation and MU to come together for scientific collaboration in what MU Provost Brian Foster called a "win-win" situation.

Foster said the Missouri Innovation Park could benefit students who could research, learn and establish working relationships with tenants in the park.

A starting date for park development depends on the tenants the corporation is recruiting, Foster said. He said the corporation is in a high-level planning stage and consulting with firms to plan and layout the park.

The park will be funded through "complex" forms of funding, Foster said, that may include:

grants from the local, state and federal level

government agencies

economic developers

tax credits

monetary gifts

The Heartland Building is located adjacent to Interstate 70 on Northeast Coronado Drive in Blue Springs.